Petrobras advances on its intention to sell Braskem shares

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer has taken a step closer to selling its stake in the Braskem petrochemicals business after the board approved a share offering, reported Bloomberg Law.

Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras can sell up to 100% of its preferred Braskem shares in a follow-on offering, it said in a filing Thursday.

Petrobras also signed a term sheet to migrate the shares to Brazil’s Novo Mercado, which has more strict governance guidelines. Petrobras has a 36.1% stake in Braskem, which has a market capitalization of 42.7 billion reais (USD7.5 billion).

Through the term sheet, Petrobras and Novonor manifest their interest in selling their respective remaining stakes - common shares - in Braskem after the migration to the Novo Mercado, Petrobras added.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2021, the oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) hired JPMorgan Chase & Co as an advisor to sell its stake in the petrochemical company Braskem SA.

We remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Linde Engineering and MOL Group have signed a contract for the digitalization of MOL’s steam cracker plant operations at MOL Petrochemicals in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Linde will deploy its technology and expertise to help MOL optimize the plant operations and improve its energy efficiency. Linde Engineering will install the software solution Linde Virtual Furnace on MOL’s steam crackers. The solution allows operators to benchmark actual operations against the optimum in real-time. MOL steam cracker plant’s virtual twin will monitor the plant’s operation performance and provide guidance to optimize production efficiency in real-time. As a result, Linde’s virtual steam cracker plant will help MOL to increase capacity and product quality while reducing energy consumption and emissions.

MOL selected Linde Engineering based on its proven experience gained through operating more than 1,000 process plants across 80 countries, the long-standing relationship since 1972 and the state-of-theart steam cracking technologies. Linde Engineering built MOL’s first steam cracker plant in Tiszaujvaros. Based on this successful project, the two companies established a close long-term cooperation. Linde Engineering was in charge of the plant’s reconstruction and lifetime extension, and in 2005, built the second steam cracker plant for MOL.

As per MRC, MOL Petrochemicals Company (formerly TVK, part of the MOL Group), the only Hungarian producer of olefins and polyolefins, has postponed the completion of its polyol plant until the second half of 2022. The company notes that as a result of the delay, total capital expenditures for the construction of a 200,000 tonnes per year facility could rise to around EUR1.3bn (initially EUR1.2bn). The development of the project was hampered by the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

As MRC informed before, MOL Petrochemicals Company (formerly known as TVK, part of the MOL Group), the only Hungarian producer of olefins and polyolefins, announced force majeure on the supply of polypropylene (PP) from plant No. 4 at the petrochemical complex in Tiszaujvaros (Tiszaujvaros, Hungary) on 23 September 2019.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

MOL Group is an integrated, international oil and gas company with its headquarters in Budapest, with an international and dynamic workforce of 25,000 in more than 30 countries and an industrial history of more than 100 years. MOL's exploration and production activities are supported by more than 80 years of experience in the hydrocarbon industry. It currently has extraction activities in 9 countries and has research assets in 14 countries. MOL Group operates three refineries and two petrochemical plants under integrated supply chain management in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, and its retail network includes 1,940 filling stations in 10 countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
MRC

1. Crude oil prices up by around 2% on strong US demand, falling crude stockpiles and upbeat Fed outlook

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices rose around 2% on Thursday, as record US implied demand, falling crude stockpiles and an upbeat economic outlook from the Federal Reserve trumped fears of the Omicron coronavirus variant hurting global consumption, reported Reuters. Crude and other risk assets such as equities also got a boost after the Fed gave an upbeat economic outlook, lifting investor spirits even as the US central bank flagged a long-awaited end to monetary stimulus. "The market was fearful of what the Fed was going to do, and now that it's in the rearview and we know what we're dealing with, the market is rallying," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst price futures group in Chicago.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into Kazakhstan rose in the first ten months of 2021 by 25% year on year to 59,100 tonnes, reported MRC analysts.

Demand for PVC subsided from local companies in October under the pressure of seasonal factors, and October imports of unmixed PVC were 5,300 tonnes versus 6,900 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall imports of resin reached 59,100 tonnes in January-October 2021, compared to 47,400 tonnes a year earlier.

It is also worth adding that such a significant increase in this year's imports was caused by a further resale of PVC to Russia. About 14,500 tonnes were resold to the Russian market over the stated period.
Due to the geographical position, Chinese producers with the share of about 91% of the local market over the stated period were the main PVC suppliers to Kazakhstan. Russia was the second largest PVC supplier, shipments of Russian PVC reached 4,800 tonnes over the stated period.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into Belarus totalled 49,500 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 11% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

According to the Statistics Committee of the Republic of Belarus, local converters significantly reduced their purchases of suspension in Russia in October under the pressure from seasonal factors. October imports were 3,900 tonnes, whereas this figure was at 5,600 tonnes a month earlier.

Thus, imports of unmixed PVC reached 49,500 tonnes in January-October 2021, compared to 44,600 tonnes a year earlier.
Russian producers with the share of about 93% of the Belarusian market were the key suppliers of resin to Belarus over the stated period. Producers from Germany with the share of over 7% were the second largest suppliers.

MRC